The $15 million Maryland Lotto prize will be split two ways.One winning ticket was bought in Baltimore County, the other in Montgomery County, state lottery officials said.Holders of the two winning tickets, who will receive $375,000 each year before taxes for 20 years, have not been identified, said spokeswoman Elyn Garrett.The lucky ticket holders will have to give at least some of the credit for their win to the lottery computer, which selected the numbers. The winning numbers were: 1-6-13-38-40-48.

Twenty-two years ago, a million bucks was a fortune. Not so much anymore. And that, in short, explains the fall of Maryland Lotto. When Lotto made its debut on Oct. 31, 1983, it was the big ticket in town. There were advertisements promoting its arrival. State government officials wished it good luck - if only in the hope it would help line the state's coffers. And Marylanders all over the state plunked down dollars in hopes of landing the huge windfall. And many did. During its reign, Lotto - a six-digit game that for more than two decades was the vice of dedicated gamblers and occasional thrill-seekers alike - produced 623 millionaires (before taxes)

A million bucks doesn't buy dreams like it used to. The first Maryland lottery game to offer $1 million prizes seems likely to become extinct, a victim of players who opt to gamble instead on mega-jackpots. Introduced in November 1983 to help bail out financially strapped localities such as Prince George's County and Baltimore, Maryland Lotto -- once the lottery's flagship game -- is showing its age, according to state officials. In the past fiscal year, Maryland Lotto sales dropped 5 percent while every other game posted gains, according to the latest figures.

A million bucks doesn't buy dreams like it used to. The first Maryland lottery game to offer $1 million prizes seems likely to become extinct, a victim of players who opt to gamble instead on mega-jackpots. Introduced in November 1983 to help bail out financially strapped localities such as Prince George's County and Baltimore, Maryland Lotto -- once the lottery's flagship game -- is showing its age, according to state officials. In the past fiscal year, Maryland Lotto sales dropped 5 percent while every other game posted gains, according to the latest figures.

If you want to try to turn the Maryland Lotto drawing into a sure-fire bet, as Australian investors may have done in Virginia, it will cost you only $6,991,908.And officials at the State Lottery Agency say they won't mind a bit."We'll take it," said Carroll Hynson Jr., an agency spokesman. "We're in business to generate revenue and ticket sales."But you'll have to arrange to fill out nearly 1.4 million play slips, and to find retail outlets willing to run your slips through 25 ticket machines 17 hours a day for three days.

If you want to try to turn the Maryland Lotto drawing into a sure-fire bet, as Australian investors may have done in Virginia, it will cost you only $6,991,908.And officials at the State Lottery Agency say they won't mind a bit."We'll take it," said Carroll Hynson Jr., an agency spokesman. "We're in business to generate revenue and ticket sales."But you'll have to arrange to fill out nearly 1.4 million play slips, and to find retail outlets willing to run your slips through 25 ticket machines 17 hours a day for three days.

Lester Martin knew what he wanted.The Fairfield, Pa., resident gave the grocery store clerk a $10 bill and asked for a roll of Tums and $5 of his change in Maryland Lotto tickets.When she gave him too much change and only one Lotto ticket, Martin corrected her and asked for four more Lotto tickets.One of the four has turned out to be worth $11,787,905.It was the second-largest prize in the Lotto game's history, but Martin vowed the windfall won't change him."It's not going to change our lifestyle," he insisted yesterday after turning in his winning ticket at lottery headquarters.

If you're thinking about strolling across the street today to pick up a Maryland Lottery ticket at the local gas station, be careful. You're more likely to get killed by a car than win the jackpot.And watch out next week. It's more likely a bolt of lightning would come crashing down on your head than you'd win a million dollars.In short, the odds stink.That's the message mathematician Alan F. Karr passed on to prospective lottery players yesterday at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Howard County.

What would you do if you won the big one?It's the American dinner-party question that won't die. Maybe because its answer usually involves an element of delicious bravado. "I'd walk right into my boss's office and . . ."accountants on call, a Saddle Brook, N.J., firm specializing in placing temporary accounting and bookkeeping personnel around the country, wondered if people really would quit their jobs. So they commissioned the Gallup Organization to conduct a survey as part of aoc's "Profiles of the American Worker" series.

Richard A. Murray just won an $8.5 million jackpot in the Maryland Lotto. But you'd hardly know it."Everybody asked, 'How can you be so calm?' " the 69-year-old Hancock resident said yesterday at the Reisterstown Road headquarters of the Maryland Lottery Agency."

A sign over the door of Jeffrey Kimble's office at New Windsor Middle School reads, "Congratulations, Mr. Kimble. We Love You, Boss."At each side of the computer-generated banner is a picture of a piggy bank overflowing with dollar bills.That might be Mr. Kimble's biggest problem -- where to put all the money he just won in the Maryland Lotto -- $18 million over 20 years. He'll get the first annual installment of $900,000 (before taxes) next week.The 52-year-old principal won the second-biggest jackpot in Lotto's history.

What would you do if you won the big one?It's the American dinner-party question that won't die. Maybe because its answer usually involves an element of delicious bravado. "I'd walk right into my boss's office and . . ."accountants on call, a Saddle Brook, N.J., firm specializing in placing temporary accounting and bookkeeping personnel around the country, wondered if people really would quit their jobs. So they commissioned the Gallup Organization to conduct a survey as part of aoc's "Profiles of the American Worker" series.

If you're thinking about strolling across the street today to pick up a Maryland Lottery ticket at the local gas station, be careful. You're more likely to get killed by a car than win the jackpot.And watch out next week. It's more likely a bolt of lightning would come crashing down on your head than you'd win a million dollars.In short, the odds stink.That's the message mathematician Alan F. Karr passed on to prospective lottery players yesterday at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Howard County.

The $15 million Maryland Lotto prize will be split two ways.One winning ticket was bought in Baltimore County, the other in Montgomery County, state lottery officials said.Holders of the two winning tickets, who will receive $375,000 each year before taxes for 20 years, have not been identified, said spokeswoman Elyn Garrett.The lucky ticket holders will have to give at least some of the credit for their win to the lottery computer, which selected the numbers. The winning numbers were: 1-6-13-38-40-48.

Richard A. Murray just won an $8.5 million jackpot in the Maryland Lotto. But you'd hardly know it."Everybody asked, 'How can you be so calm?' " the 69-year-old Hancock resident said yesterday at the Reisterstown Road headquarters of the Maryland Lottery Agency."

If you want to try to turn the Maryland Lotto drawing into a sure-fire bet, as Australian investors may have done in Virginia, it will cost you only $6,991,908.And officials at the State Lottery Agency say they won't mind a bit."We'll take it," said Carroll Hynson Jr., an agency spokesman. "We're in business to generate revenue and ticket sales."But you'll have to arrange to fill out nearly 1.4 million play slips, and to find retail outlets willing to run your slips through 25 ticket machines 17 hours a day for three days.

COLONIAL BEACH, Va. -- While the thought of winning tonight's estimated $20 million Maryland lotto jackpot is enough to make King Midas drool, you can't blame the staff at one lottery outlet for being a little bit unimpressed about it all.Twenty million, shmunty million. It isn't even the best pay-off at Little Reno.Thanks to a quirk of geography that puts the tidal Potomac River within the state of Maryland, this odd conglomerate of honky-tonk bar, restaurant, arcade, miniature golf course and liquor store on the Virginia side of the river finds itself in the best of all possible states when it comes to the lottery.

C Last January, Naval reservist Sharon A. Taylor got a letter ordering her to report for active duty in Operation Desert Storm.Before she knew it, she was 85 miles from the Kuwaiti border, working as a hospital corpsman at Fleet Hospital 20, at the Persian Gulf port of Al Jubayl in Saudi Arabia.She made it back to the States late in April, and her luck has been improving ever since.On Wednesday night, Taylor, 41, and Sgt. 1st Class Francis K. Rogers, 38, discovered that one of the 20 sets of Lotto numbers they bought jointly this week at a Brooklyn Park liquor store was worth nearly $6 million.

If you want to try to turn the Maryland Lotto drawing into a sure-fire bet, as Australian investors may have done in Virginia, it will cost you only $6,991,908.And officials at the State Lottery Agency say they won't mind a bit."We'll take it," said Carroll Hynson Jr., an agency spokesman. "We're in business to generate revenue and ticket sales."But you'll have to arrange to fill out nearly 1.4 million play slips, and to find retail outlets willing to run your slips through 25 ticket machines 17 hours a day for three days.

C Last January, Naval reservist Sharon A. Taylor got a letter ordering her to report for active duty in Operation Desert Storm.Before she knew it, she was 85 miles from the Kuwaiti border, working as a hospital corpsman at Fleet Hospital 20, at the Persian Gulf port of Al Jubayl in Saudi Arabia.She made it back to the States late in April, and her luck has been improving ever since.On Wednesday night, Taylor, 41, and Sgt. 1st Class Francis K. Rogers, 38, discovered that one of the 20 sets of Lotto numbers they bought jointly this week at a Brooklyn Park liquor store was worth nearly $6 million.